We definitely need to remember how they failed, that they failed and WHY they failed. And remember not to make those mistakes in creating a new system.

The main thing we need to keep in mind is that the internet and other information technologies are a major part of the world and daily life now. Information about police acting unlawfully against a group of protesters can be in the hands of millions in seconds in the form of video, text messages, ect. And that's just one example of how the world has changed.

The basic infrastructure of everything has been upgraded and we have to upgrade our society, our economics, and our systems of government to match.

Because if you cannot even imagine a different world, you have no hope of creating it. Imagination is the essential seed to man's ability to create anything new, whether it be a flying machine (impossible in its day) or a new order.

7 billion people occupy the planet. All with an imagination different from the next. Bush thought Democraccy and freedom as a core human principal. It is not. Some societies want rules and religions in charge of them, to the point they do not mind tyranny. I believe we Need to pull back, close military bases and let countries figure out their own path. Less globalization, more localization.

A whole bunch of us in my generation (X(!)) had recognized that the 5000+ year Age of Growth is over and were answering what to replace it with. Those answers involve the Net if you want to look for them.

One of the best and most complete writers on the topic is Charles Eisenstein: The Ascent of Humanity: the age of separation, the age of reunion, and the convergence of crisis that is birthing the transition.

Unfortunately, the solution and beauty of the Transition was raped by the false gods of India (among other things) when the agnostic that created the transition, right here, found out the truth of YHVH and had to abandon several false spiritual traditions and accepted practices, resulting in a painful "miscarry". (Homosexuality for example, actually collapses the Adam unity because of the electrical qualities of semen.)

Ultimately, the miscarry was due the stupidity and neglect within the Christian Era, effectively forcing a secular answer for the Transition instead of the anticipated Messiah. That neglect brought the Native Americans to me (and many others who followed the whole Mayan calendar and such) before the Jews could find me. The Jews, as you may know are the only ones who had anticipated and had been waiting for such a Transition.

This is also why the occupy movement mostly has failed -- non-violence is simply not effective when astral entities choose pure evil, and that's what happened. If you want to know the details of that, you can contact me, but it has to do with how Lutherans promised people eternal life without having to do anything.

What comes now in the mess afterwards is still being determined/created....

When you say global in nature, you think the world will buy in. There are people living a much more primitive life than we do. Some hunt with bow and arrows still, other live nomadic. I don't see a global government ever working, too many egos and demented minds in control of many countries.

To be able to move forward we need is a way to circumvent greed in prosperous nations, hunger everywhere, crime, terrorism and the need some have to be better than others. I don't see this happening, but reducing or limiting what levels of greed would sure help.

I think one major thing it must entail is for each of us to learn how to listen to each other without rancor so we can learn to work together on global solutions to global problems. This means giving up the need to be right (i.e., correct) since hardly any problem has only one solution.

I think it will entail a new economic system that is structured much differently than the capitalism we have today. It will probably be more global in nature. I think political systems will change too. These are things that will change over a long period of time, say 50 years. We will move away from the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution and the Protestant Reformation to something more suitable to the changes we see in society today. A new period is being ushered in but this doesn't happen overnight.

The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution - by this I take it you mean because technology requires more skilled labor while needing few laborers which is part of the income shift. I agree with you here - we are moving away from the ability of unskilled workers to find factory (lower level manufacturing) employment and will need to come up with other means of employment.

But I am not sure why you include the Protestant Reformation in your comment....can you explain that further.

Sure, the Protestant Reformation brought about the Protestant work ethic which basically postulated that it would be good and Christian to work hard in a secular world to develop capital and accumulate wealth. Many scholars attribute this work ethic to providing an important fundamental basis for the development of capitalism as an economic system.

In my opinion, it is the basis for the sort of Christian arguments you hear out there that it is okay to be wealthy. I worked for it. I don't have to share it. You have no right to "my money."

The New Age philosophies that have come into being shifts focus from the "human doing" to the "human being." We were taught that we had no value if we did not work hard, so many of us in the older generation felt we were worthless if we did not work, and work hard. The sign of hard work came to be money and what it could buy. So a couple decades later, the credit industry gave people the ability to appear prosperous (i.e a successful, hardworking person) without actually being so. Form over substance, a direct spinoff from the work ethic. Now we have a younger generation that we complain feels "entitled" -- well, good for them! Look where feeling "not good enough" got us.

Terrific post. I never thought of it that way. We really do need to get to the root of why we are here today the way we are. This kind of discussion is very productive. Only by understanding where we have come from can we get to the place we need to go.

If each one of us questions our belief system and recognizes that many beliefs were handed to us by society to keep the system going, then we can get to the root of our own true beliefs. For instance, is a college degree a better goal than to develop a skill? Is art and creativity as important for a society as other endeavors? Does having more stuff make one happy? This forum is replete with beliefs that have been repeated without question for decades. Living without question has been disastrous. OWS, has started the questioning process. Keep it up!

Exactly! We have to step back and look at the global picture. First we need to build a governmental syatem in our own country that works. Then we have to make it relatively stable, then we MUST address the issue of third-world countries. At the same time, we have to keep an eye on the middle East, as unrest there does affect the rest of the world.

Also, once we have a new system that works in place, we have to talk to Europe, China, Russia, and the other major superpowers about adopting such a system, whatever it may end up being.

It may take several tries to find a new way of doing things that can work in the digital age, but we have to keep trying and we HAVE to keep our eyes on the big picture. Of course, when looking at the big picture, don't forget to zoom in from time to time and take a look at how everything affects the little man.